Ready-to-eat, pre-packaged desserts (e.g., pudding, gelatine, mousse, and the like) are currently available in single-serving cups as aseptic, shelf-stable products, pasteurized products, or commercially-sterile refrigerated products. Such desserts have become widely accepted because they can be stored at room temperature or under refrigeration and consumed without further preparation. To forestall microbiological contamination, components of the shelf-stable, ready-to-eat desserts are often processed at ultra-high temperatures (UHT) prior to packaging. For example, it is well-known that packaging foods under aseptic conditions can extend the shelf-life of the product at room temperature or under refrigeration.
However, certain dessert components, such as chocolate products, must be formulated with high fat and with minimal water content. The presence of significant amount of water generally make processing the product difficult and tends to result in a less than desirable texture (i.e., not smooth and firm). Such products are, therefore, difficult to render safe for long shelf lives under refrigerated or room temperature storage conditions. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,831 to Eder et al. (multi-layer chocolate/mousse dessert); U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,902 to Grassler et al. (chocolate pieces in mousse). The addition of water to chocolate has been attempted (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,165,540, 6,159,526, and 5,965,179). The resulting products are not pasteurized or sterilized and, therefore, are generally not suitable for human consumption if the water activity is above about 0.85 or if they are to be layered with a high water activity component (e.g., pudding). Also it would be expected that heat processing (i.e., pasteurization or sterilization) to destroy undesirable microorganisms would be destructive to the final taste and texture of these chocolate formulations. In order to offer a diverse selection of desserts to the consumer, it is desirable to offer chocolate fudge as a ready-to-eat dessert, or as a component of a ready-to-eat dessert combination, with other such components as pudding, mousse, whip cream, sauce, and the like.